COMMUNITIES FOR LIVING

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23181, 20 April 1945, Page 2

COMMUNITIES FOR LIVING

Dangers Of Central Control Possibilities Of Regional Planning The development of the life of community was traced by Mr A. i. Campbell, M.A., senior mior ror Aoult taucacion, m a public address on ■■communities for Living” at the Little PlayHouse last iiigni. The speaker said that for 1009 years western society depended upon wood as the natural bunding material, and water played a major part as the source and supply of power. It was a comparatively leisurely age with workers still retaining a certam amount of skill, freedom ana self-control while product lion was a personal rather tnan an I impersonal matter. There was a balance ana harmony with Nature, as for the most part lite was in rural villages or small towns. Tne next stage was the coal and Iron one. Tne mine, factory and the industrial city reflected this period. Size, speed and number seemed to be the tnings which counted most. Industrial proauction and mechanical power gamed at the expense of human relationships. This brought on the era of the powerful nation-wide state which had gone on with disregard of geographic and economic and human realities. As the central government waxed, so had the powers 01 local regions ana cities waned. "The monster of fascism in our day is the logical end of the super-nation state,” declared Mr Campbell, -in an endeavour to hold national consciousness together tnere has had to be deliberate effort constantly at the centre —indoctrination m the senool, propaganda in the Press, restrictive laws, wiping out of rival dialects and languages, suppression of customs and the privileges of minorities.” Regionalism In the opinion ol tne speaker, regionalism was the antidote to the disease of nationalism ana centralism. "It is more tiian urgent that we create in common man me lively sense that he is a governor c.. wen as governed, that ne is aaministenng as well as being administered to. It is against the natural setting of mil ana river, climate and natural landscape that numau communities best develop. 10 need mil lives contact with Nature is needed.” auch a plan would need a new name lor domestic and community Hie. we should no longer accept wealth, power, war, and the decline oi population as the order of things, but we should underline the solid foundations ol tne family, the community, we should emphasise biological and social needs ana treat financial and industrial needs as secondary things. In New Zealand we had areas that had natural features distinguishing (hem from others within the Stateareas witn a common historic background "nd wi. i people who were of one outijok on broad issues. “These areas, which could be defined as regions, are not artificial things, as anyone who knows the sentiment of the West Coast, Southland, South Canterbury and the Wairarapa knows,” observed Mr Campbell. "Each of these areas carries a warmth which gives it a personality. It is in regional areas that community planning can best develop. Somehow we must equate the common historic and social background with the best use of resources, human and natural. This checkmates central government, which must in the end become tyrannous if the interest of the pans are not maintained and woven in to the interests of the whole. “This is a national job and the time for national as well as regional plannine- has come. In regionalism the Government, will find the best unit for dispersal of power of enriching its citizens life and training in practical politics and self government.” After the address. Lewis Mumford’s sound film “The City” was screened.